In this
article written by Erin Garcia de Jesus, she outlines how the oldest DNA ever recovered from an animal recovers details about mammoths' evolution. There was genetic material from ancient mammoth molars found in Siberia. This DNA was extracted from 3 molars found in the 1970's. DNA degrades into shorter strings of genetic material over time. Cold permafrost helps to protect genetic information from rapidly falling apart. Researchers previously thought that only one type of mammoth lived in Siberia 1 million years ago but this new information showed Krestovka and Adycha lived around 1.2 to 1 million years ago. The study shows that traits such a shaggy hair helped mammoths' handle the cold. It is hard to work with ancient DNA but it allows for so much new information to be found.
This link provides more information about mammoths in general.
Hi Heather!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! So awesome that mammoth samples can stay preserved enough for us to make detailed conclusions. Nature is amazing, it can get cold enough to preserve tissue for millions of years.